[Gorwingel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Best Picture: i don't think there is much hope really. Just look what we've seen already: Cold Mountain and The Last Samurai (both academy films) and Lost in Translation, who's 'cool' will carry in the Academy. I think FOTR should have won two years ago.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well most people say that ROTK is going to get a nomination, and that it is the frontrunner for the win. Cold Mountain (which I have seen) has really been losing buzz, and Lost in Translation is a film that some people like, but others think it is very much overated (does anyone know if LIT is on DVD yet?)<P>The Last Samurai didn't even get the Golden Globe nod. Which means that it most likely has a very small chance of getting the Oscar nod.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Best director: maybe a chance, actually. you know, last film and all. but there is always Antony Minghella and Sofia Coppola <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Antony Minghella didn't even get nominated for the Director's Guild award. Peter Jackson did. Additonally Minghella has aready gotten an Oscar for The English Patient, a film that many agree is much stronger that Cold Mountain. Peter Jackson is the nominee with the largest number of nominations and no wins, which makes him very much a frontrunner for it.<P>And Additionally I think that the Academy is looking at Sophia, thinking that she is young, and that she will have plenty of chances in the future to win. LIT is only her second film.<P>Well good news on the Oscar front... ROTK just took the Producers Guild award for best picture! <A HREF="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040118/ap_on_en_mo/brf_producers_guild_awards_3" TARGET=_blank>Yahoo News</A>. It beat Mystic River, Seabiscuit, Cold Mountain and others.<P>I personally think that the cast and crew of LOTR, even though they are acting like they don't need the award, really want it. Ian McKellen did say in an interview that he thought that the Oscar really didn't matter, and that these films would live on anyway, but it still would be wonderful if they got it. I really would like if it won though. I have been watching the Oscars for my entire life, and the during the last few years I have been greatly dissapointed about their choices for Best Picture. I personally don't think that they are as corrupted as people think, but then I don't exactly agree with the whole treating the race like a political contest.<P>But we will see